Business Guide to Japan. Boye Lafayette De MenteЧитать онлайн книгу.
on business in Japan and impacts both directly and indirectly on foreigners dealing with the Japanese is the habatsu (hah-bot-sue) or “factions” the Japanese naturally form when they come together.
Historically, Japan’s vertically structured feudal society was based on lifelong loyalty to individual leaders from the emperor and shogun on down to the local construction boss. Every political leader and his followers, as well as every business boss and his employees, tended to become a faction, or closely knit group, that acted in unison to achieve goals as well as to defend themselves against competitors or predators. The larger the groups, the more likely there would be multiple factions.
This situation prevailed for centuries, making it more or less second nature for Japanese who come together for any purpose to automatically form factions that quickly take on distinguishable characteristics that determine how one must deal with them to get things done. Sections and departments in Japanese companies tend to act like factions, often making it difficult for them to communicate with each other.
The difference between a Japanese “faction” and a foreign team, company section, or department is not structural. It has to do with the relationship between the individual members, their attitude toward the group, and how the group functions. And this, of course, involves a great many other cultural traits, from the strong sanctions to enforce harmony and the diffusion of personal responsibility to decision by consensus.
Japanese factions vary in size and makeup from a section or a department in a company or government agency to affiliations of companies and politicians. The point is that foreigners dealing with a Japanese company should keep in mind that they are dealing with a closely knit group, not with just the leader or boss or any of the individual members.
This means quick, individually made decisions will not be forthcoming, all members of the group have the right to ask questions and express opinions, and, in principle at least, everyone takes part in all final decisions.
The operation of a section or department in a Japanese company is actually much more democratic than one normally finds in Western companies, which is one of the reasons why it is often difficult for foreigners to understand and accept. In dealing with any Japanese group it helps to take the approach that you are dealing with a small, highly democratic, highly defensive, and often very suspicious, country.
Centuries of conditioning in groupthink and in acting in groups instead of as individuals has resulted in the Japanese developing a highly refined ability to communicate with each other with what one might call “herd telepathy”—but in Japan this phenomenon has far more colorful names, including the “art of the belly.”
The strength of the faction system builds upon the groupthink principle in that once a project or course of action is agreed upon—after it has been thoroughly studied and discussed—the whole group works together like a well-trained football team. The weakness of the system is that, again, it is unable to respond quickly, and it tends to pull the caliber of the group well below the level of its most capable members.
USING THE ART OF THE BELLY
NONVERBAL communication and intuition play a significant role in all personal relations in Japan, including all facets of business. This phenomenon is, of course, a direct outgrowth of a highly sophisticated and stylized culture that is over two thousand years old—a culture in which physical etiquette routinely took precedence over all other considerations.
As the centuries passed and the Japanese became more and more homogenized creatures of a monocultural society, packed into a tiny area, living in extended families, and working in consensus-controlled groups, verbal communication became superfluous in many of the common situations of life. To a remarkable degree, everybody thought very much alike, behaved in the same highly controlled manner, and reacted herd-like in virtually all situations.
While this degree of cultural conditioning certainly no longer exists in Japan, enough of it remains in the language, in the common education, and in the common life and work experiences that “communicating without talking” is still ranked high among the characteristic qualities that the Japanese ascribe to themselves.
One area of “Japanese expertise” that plays a key role in business in Japan is known as haragei (hah-rah-gay-e) or “the art of the belly.” This refers to making decisions on the basis of gut feeling—a visceral reaction to an individual or proposal or situation. Many older Japanese businessmen take great pride in depending on their belly instead of their head in operating their businesses.
What they are using to guide their approach to business is an accumulation of Japanese wisdom that goes back for centuries—their ability to “read” other people, to get their cooperation and help by intuitively knowing how to approach them, treat them, and react to them, and thus meld them into an effective work group.
Many Japanese believe that it is the strength and power that derives from the use of this “Japanese way” that has made their country so successful economically in the world today. Of course, the Japanese art of the belly is generally effective only when the Japanese are dealing with other Japanese—and is the reason why a Japanese person without extensive international experience feels very uncomfortable in dealing with foreigners. Not being able to “read” foreigners, they cannot anticipate their reactions or be confident in dealing with them.
There is, therefore, a significant amount of constant tension between un-internationalized Japanese and Westerners—tension that disturbs them and tires them.
For a detailed discourse on the “Japanese art of the belly,” see Michihiro Matsumoto’s The Unspoken Way—Haragei: Silence in Japanese Business and Society.
One of the many tools foreigners should master in their dealings with Japanese is how to reduce this tension and make their Japanese contacts feel less strained and less tense when they are together—to make their bellies feel good. One of the most important ways of stroking the hara (hah-rah) of the Japanese is known as heart-to-heart communication.
COMMUNICATING HEART-TO-HEART
A METHOD of communication in Japan that might be described as more refined or more sophisticated than haragei and that plays an equally important key role in dealing with the Japanese is ishin denshin (ee-sheen dane-sheen). This second form of sending and receiving in Japan is often translated as “heart-to-heart communication”—and is what I call “Japanese telepathy.”
While haragei refers to visceral feelings, ishin denshin refers to the traditional philosophy and ethics of the Japanese that make “harmony between hearts” the highest priority in relationships. Adhering to the principle of ishin denshin means never saying or doing anything that would upset a business or personal relationship.
This is another aspect of Japan that in the minds of the Japanese separates them from foreigners and is perceived as both an asset and a handicap. They see it as an advantage when they are dealing with other Japanese, and therefore as one of the reasons why Japan is “superior” to other countries. It is of no value to them and becomes a frustration, however, when they are dealing with foreigners because foreigners are not tuned in to the same cultural wavelength.
Japanese businessmen will frequently say it is difficult to deal with foreigners because they cannot communicate heart-to-heart with them and that their goal is to learn English well enough and learn how foreigners do business well enough to establish an ishin denshin relationship with them.
Foreigners, who often do not have sufficient time to learn the Japanese language and Japan’s business culture to the extent that they can tap into the telepathic wavelength of their Japanese counterparts, can overcome the handicap to some extent by letting the Japanese know they are aware of the “practice” and have their own version which they are endeavoring to make compatible with the Japanese.
Learning some key Japanese-language words and phrases, a degree of Japanese protocol, and an appreciation of some things Japanese (such as Japanese food and singing in karaoke bars) will go a long way in convincing contacts of your claims about ishin denshin.
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